St. Lawrence County dairy farmers expanding their businesses

A number of dairy farms in St. Lawrence County are expanding because of a favorable milk market, low feed prices and a record high milk price even though it may be short-lived.

I think everybodys making sure their barns are full. I know people are adding on cows, said Jon R. Greenwood, president of the county Farm Bureau. Its expected to be a very good year. You dont hear many complaints from farmers right now.

The market for milk is strong, particularly because of a boom in the popularity of Greek yogurt and because exports of dairy products have grown, farmers said.

Theres a demand and the prices have been better the last two years, Mr. Greenwood said. I know a lot of people received over $26 per hundredweight last month. Its a record price.

The outlook for at least the remainder of the year is good, said Robert G. Andrews, chairman of the county Agriculture and Farmland Protection Board and of the Soil & Water Conservation District.

We cannot produce enough milk to feed all the manufacturing plants in New York, he said. Its all economic growth.

The growth plans of some farmers are not tied directly to the milk price, which historically swings up and down, but is part of a long-term business plan.

Stauffer Farms in North Lawrence is extending a barn and putting on another 200 milkers.

The price of milk is good. We were making good money before. This probably would have happened anyway, said Benjamin L. Stauffer, a partner in the family business. We have the feed to do it. Its kind of shortsighted to say youre going to do it because the price is good right now, but theres definitely some expansion going on.

Mr. Stauffer said his family made sure to get on the building schedule early because the farms contractor said he expected to be busy all summer.

Mapleview Farm in Madrid is building a small addition to a barn that will increase its capacity 10 to 15 percent, said David M. Fisher, a partner in the family farm. The move will add about 300 cows to the operation because of available capacity in the milking parlor.

Its not really because of high-priced milk. Weve been building barns for years, steady growth, Mr. Fisher said. We think we can be a little more efficient.

Adon Farms, Parishville, finished a barn last fall for dry cows and has no immediate plans to add milkers.

We needed more space, said Anthony J. Gilbert, a partner in the family farm. Were kind of maxed out.

The farm would have to expand its milking parlor to add more cows, he said.

But Mr. Gilbert said he has heard of many others planning to add cows.

The milk price definitely plays a part, he said. This is great and Im enjoying it, but were going to be in a period of gritting our teeth and wondering how its going to go.

Mr. Fisher agreed.

We live in fear of the price of milk crashing any time, he said.

Some new barn construction has little to do with the price of milk.

Steven J. Morrill said the 2,400-cow operation he runs with Gregory Coller, Hermon, is considering building a special needs barn as a maternity ward and general hospital. We like the number of cows were at, Mr. Morrill said. If we add on, itll be to better the environment of the cow. There hasnt been a final decision yet.

Commenting rules:

Stick to the topic of the article/letter/editorial.

When responding to issues raised by other commenters, do not engage in personal attacks or name-calling.

Comments that include profanity/obscenities or are libelous in nature will be removed without warning.

Violators' commenting privileges may be revoked indefinitely. By commenting you agree to our full Terms of Use.